I was always fascinated by the science laboratory hours at school, when we had to use microscopes to literally discover new words, and test chemical compounds and the ways they react with eachother. I also remember how cool mercury was and how our incautious teacher had let us played with our hands in it, despite its toxicity. If you want to discover more about the micro-universe but you don't want to have the hassle of slides, drops of blood or samples of skins, give VirtualLab a try.

This application is funded by NASA and it is a digital microscope with many specimens you can easily download from the main page. You don't have to install anything, just click the thumbnail that attracts you most and the program take care of downloading it and make it available for you. Among the specimens available there are human blood cells, penicillin, pyrite, meteorite, lunar dust, yeast, dog liver and human kidney samples. Be careful though as some of the files are really big, more than 150MB and it will take ages to download them. This is because the images are really detailed and you can zoom in more than 150,000X. For some images then, you can also select a portion and have a 3D rendering in another window.

Looking at the downsides I found the technique you have to use to navigate through pictures pretty unusual, and I didn't like the fixed zoom. In fact, it is not possible to zoom in freely on an image, as there are just four fixed zoom levels you can choose from.

VirtualLab is a fascinating program with which you can efficiently discover the micro world thanks to 84 high-definitions. It's a pity there are some usability issues.

Download Virtual Lab 6.2.2 in Softonic

Avogadro is an application purely for scientists and students that have to draw three-dimensional molecular compositions that showing a molecule from every conceivable angle and perspective.

It works across platforms and is used in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bio informatics, material science and other related areas. The aim has been to make 3D molecular manipulation as easy as possible and even if your not a scientists, it's quite entertaining just creating your own different coloured structures that look good. This can be done simply by using the mouse buttons and dragging the molecules on their three axis. Probably the best aspect of this program for those with some coding knowledge is that it can be easily extended and developed via plugins. Avogadro is based on Open Babel according to the developers and in future, will also offer scripting options. The main problem you'll find is that like with many open source collaborations, it is prone to bugs and errors so it may crash at any time.

An excellent scientific tool that allows flexibility for those that want to develop plugins but is easy enough for anyone to use.

Download Avogadro 0.2.0 in Softonic

Application containing all the elements of the Periodic Table along with images of the elements in their natural state.

Features include:

• Detailed information on each element
• Images for each element (126 images in total)
• Glossary
• Graphs of important element properties
• Biographies for the element discoverers
• Interactive display allows you to view the states of the elements at any temperature (from 0 - 6000k)
• XP style support
• Search the all of the element, biography and glossary pages.
• Electron shell diagrams of each element
• Atomic width diagram

Download Periodic Table 3.4 in Softonic

If you're a bio-scientist or researcher, then this program provides an excellent platform upon which to graphically represent molecular structures. Bioclipse provides functionality for chemo and bioinformatics but can also be extended via plugins to provide added functionality for many more areas.

Firstly, you'll need to make sure that you've got at least Java 1.5 or newer installed as this is an open source java based platform. Once opened, you are presented with the Bioclipse Workbench view which displays molecules in 3D. Next to this you have the editor window where you can work with editing files and perform saves, copy and pastes etc. finally you have the perspective window which is a collection of views and editors such as the Chemoinformatics view which displays information related to chemoinformatics like 2D-editing, 3D-visualization etc.

For anyone involved in molecular science, this is a simple but powerful program that will make your graphical presentations look much more professional.

Download Bioclipse 1.1.3 in Softonic

Before I start, let me make it clear that my knowledge of molecular science could be written on a single grain of rice. That said, I know how to spot a good bit of software and from what I can see ArgusLab is a very useful tool for anyone working in a research lab, studying or working in the pharmaceutical industry.

The program allows you to draw very complex protein configurations, obtain helical chains of amino acids and folded leaves etc. ArgusLab uses a tree system to organise all the elements to add to any structure before representing this data as a drawing, allowing you to analyse it a visual manner. The app also contains a PDB bookstore, a peptide converter and many other useful tools that I don't understand. If you're not well versed in molecular science then you won't learn too much from this highly advanced tool but if you do then ArgusLab represents an amazing free tool for your research.

Download ArgusLab 4.0.1 in Softonic

JavaPK for Desktop (JPKD) is a clinical pharmacokinetic (CPK) services (or therapeutic drug monitoring, TDM) computer program for desktop. It not only inherits all functionalities of JavaPK for Mobile Devices, but the application also has a built-in algorithm of user's defined Bayesian model for individualized pharmacokinetic parameter estimation (UDBM) for batch input data.

Users can define their own pharmacokinetic prediction models with population PK parameters and then use the defined model to solve batch prediction data or applied the defined model to therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM).

Download JavaPK for Desktop 2.1 in Softonic

This multifunctional periodic table is an excellent tool for both students and serious researchers. It has over 20 types of data on each element and all known isotopes in customizable, user-expandable tables. All sixteen numeric data types (plus any user-added data) can be corelated in particle or line graphs. Includes a powerful chemical equation balancer that can solve the most complex organic reactions and calculate molecular weights and amounts of reagents.

Download PL Table 4.1 in Softonic

Phoxel Unit Converter is a simple program that lets you choose any element from the periodic table and display all the information about it. You can also find the molecular weight of any compound and convert from grams-to-moles or moles-to-grams.

Download Phoxel Periodic Table 1.0 in Softonic

EniG. Periodic table of the elements contains the basic data about the elements in 7 languages (Croatian, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese). It visually shows the change in physical condition with the change of temperature. The language, the speed of temperature change and the exchange of elements can be adjusted in the configuration file.

The calculating module from the Chemistry Assistant program allows the fast calculating of mole mass compounds and has also been integrated in the Periodic Table. The program translates texts with chemical symbols or without them, entered in input line, into mathematical terms (it can be seen as ToolTip text) and calculates them.

The periodic Table can be incorporated into presentations, the change of temperature automatically started and the programme closed. The background color can be adjusted to match the color of the presentation slide.

Download EniG. Periodic Table of Elements 2.11 in Softonic

EniG. Chemistry Assistant is an expression calculator for fast calculations of the molecular weight of compounds by simple entry of chemical formula, and replaces the element symbols with their atomic weight. This program translates both texts with chemical element symbols or without them into a mathematical expressions and calculates them. The program includes functions for statistical analysis, solving of quadratic equations, physical constants, and preparing solution calculations.

The element symbols can be written in lowercase letters, and the intelligent routine in the program will try to translate them and will show the result of translation - or it will report an error. The appearance of mathematical expression, which is the result of the translation, can be seen if the mouse pointer is held over the entry field. The right mouse button has several commonly used anions and molecules.

Chemistry Assistant also includes a detailed help file containing syntax, usage, and examples for all of the supported functions. The calculator also provides a list of common physical constants and performs various conversions between English and metric units.

Every function that is supported by Chemistry Assistant can be inserted by clicking on the button with function name or type its name on the physical keyboard. Some functions are not associated with the buttons, but every function can be called by typing its name.

Download EniG Chemistry Assistant 2.4 in Softonic